UK's IP Police Toughening Stance on Copyright Offenders

The UK's Intellectual Property Office is looking to adjust its strategy when it comes to enforcing copyright breaches, with the ambition of making their procedures much more watertight by the year 2020.

The announcement of the IP Enforcement 2020 scheme contains one key idea for the future of law enforcement; a move away from takedown requests aimed at web sites to a "trackdown" system that allows aggrieved copyright holders to find the actual original infringer and see how he likes being broken into pieces and shared around the world.

The doc explains this will let rights holders "take action directly against the identified infringer" rather than simply request a web site with a copy of all the Batmans on it is closed. They would also like more powers to force payment providers to stop acting on behalf of sites deemed to be infringing copyright when notified, with the paper also suggesting that illegal streaming through set-top boxes is seen as one particularly large future target.

And it would like more help from Google by the sound of it, with the report saying the IPO is: "Investigating the scope for legislation to take action against search engines, ISPs and platforms that facilitate or otherwise support those involved in infringement and counterfeiting." [GOV via ARS]